have you ever let anything slip through your hands

stevoman

Hi lads, just thought id start a thread to see if anything like this has happened to you. i have two short stories about letting military history slip through your hands.

the first is my story about a picture of my great grand uncle that was taken before he left for france after he joined the royal fusiliers in the 1st world war. if any of you are familair with the old photos they were quite large and once the photo was taken it had to be coloured in. It stood across from the fireplace in my great grandparents cottage and after they died my granny took it and hung it in her house. i was always facinated by the picture and as a child would just gaze at it wondering what he must have thought as he sat there in his british army uniform awaiting deployment to france. he was subsequently killed after 2-3 weeks on the front lines. Well to make a long story short i had always assumed that i would get that picture. ( i never asked for it but always presumed i would get it someday as i never thought it was going anywhere). well my mother stwin came home from australia for 3 week holiday a few years back and on the last day asked my granny the picture and she gave it to her and packaged it and had it send home to australia. Literally i was distrught 1 - i always wanted it as i was fasicnated it 2 - i apprecaited its history and although its not collectable i found it a lovely piece of militaria. I vowed that day i would never let a piece of history pass me again without either asking for it or offering to buy it.


one other quick story i have is when i was working in new york and i worked with a man who was stationed in frankfurt with the US cavalry in the 80's. he befreinded and old man who just happened to be in the SS and both men shared a mutual hate for russians. Upon his leaving the old man gave him his skull and crossbone ring. i immediatly asked him what did he do with it or was it for sale. he told me he just gave it away to a friend when he got home a few years after:eek:


have any of you lads have storys of the same, id love to hear?

arnhem44

Thankfully I've never really left anything slip through my hands,I've often let things that you watch online get away and felt sorrow afterwards but I guess what you don't have you don't miss,on the subject of photos I was looking for a photo of my grandfather in his uniform from the emergency period(sadly his medal is lost),when my grandparents died one of my aunts came to the house and took the entire photo album,this particular aunt knows I'm looking for one of these photos and yet I'm still waiting,shes a thundering b with an itch:D

SpitfireIV

Hmm, let see, nothing of any significant importance, but heres the ones I remember:

Seen a squashed and compacted lump of khaki bullswool at a market once, when I started to open it and pull it apart it had shoulder boards with brass numbers on it.

I walked away and left it! Looked like a WW2 vintage, possibly even WW1 vintage British trench coat , just that it was squashed up, might have turned out nice though with some work. The guy who was selling it had general old stuff, so I guess I could have got it for pretty cheap! :rolleyes:

A WW2 German field phone, which I assumed at the time was some some of postwar phone (due to the bakelitte casing), that was when I was young and naive, opting instead for the British field phone, could of had the two of them that day for cheap enough! D'oh!

danpatjoe

A Mauser C96 Broomhandle (7.63 cal.) given away for nothing in a moment of drunken generosity.

I have kicked myself everyday since! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Rashers

arnhem44 wrote: »

I was looking for a photo of my grandfather in his uniform from the emergency period(sadly his medal is lost)

You can have it re-issued. If you get all your info together, name, rank, service number, dates (or approx) of service, corps.... or any of that if you haven't got it all. Call the Dept of Defence... I think it's their number at Mobhi Rd.... used to be anyway. And I'm sure it'll be re-issued, probably along with a matching miniature (dress) version.

They did it for me after my father's medal was lost.

Best of luck.

arnhem44

Rashers wrote: »

You can have it re-issued. If you get all your info together, name, rank, service number, dates (or approx) of service, corps.... or any of that if you haven't got it all. Call the Dept of Defence... I think it's their number at Mobhi Rd.... used to be anyway. And I'm sure it'll be re-issued, probably along with a matching miniature (dress) version.

They did it for me after my father's medal was lost.

Best of luck.

Thanks Rashers,I didn't know that and would definately be worth looking into,I don't have much of his records to go on,I may have to ask my Uncle about this,I would imagine he would be the only one that me be able to help with this,on the subject of letting things go,it came to me afterwards,when I was younger my brother and I got the job of cleaning out an attic of a house that was been done up,in the attic was and old split cane rod with its eyes missing,an old mutiplier reel and an old long Irish army coat circa from the twenty's,of course had no interest in militaria at the time and thought the rod was only rubbish so both got dumped,of course Michael Collins came from town here and the coat may of been owned by some one who possibley knew him,then again this is only wishful thinking:o

arnhem44

danpatjoe wrote: »

A Mauser C96 Broomhandle (7.63 cal.) given away for nothing in a moment of drunken generosity.

I have kicked myself everyday since! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

Dan I think you should go and get those boys drunk again:D

Grizzly 45

A very rare Camillius cutlery,late ww2 /korean war combat knife.We had it for years,dunno where my dad got it from.But anyway I had it and was talking to my history teacher in school.He suggested bring it to school and put it in the libary for a couple of weeks in a locked trophy cabinet.I did this in good faith,and the thing was nicked by some little scut in school!! This being in the 80s,not alot was done,I was never offered compensation for property theft,and at least whenever I had that teacher again for history I passed with A plus all the time as compensation.:D

danpatjoe

arnhem44 wrote: »

Dan I think you should go and get those boys drunk again:D

No... It was mine and I was the one who drunkenly gave it away!!:mad:

arnhem44

danpatjoe wrote: »

No... It was mine and I was the one who drunkenly gave it away!!:mad:

Ah, that does change it a little alright,pity to leave that one get away.

arybvtcw0eolkf

arnhem44 wrote: »

Thankfully I've never really left anything slip through my hands,I've often let things that you watch online get away and felt sorrow afterwards but I guess what you don't have you don't miss,on the subject of photos I was looking for a photo of my grandfather in his uniform from the emergency period(sadly his medal is lost),when my grandparents died one of my aunts came to the house and took the entire photo album,this particular aunt knows I'm looking for one of these photos and yet I'm still waiting,shes a thundering b with an itch:D

Ring (01) 8042000 and ask for 'Ceremonial Section' and explain your case there.

Any difficulties drop me a PM.

arnhem44

Mairt wrote: »

Ring (01) 8042000 and ask for 'Ceremonial Section' and explain your case there.

Any difficulties drop me a PM.

Hello Mairt,thank you kindly for that,I'm still trying to gather more info on his time in the army,even my mother has only sketchy details,she also informed me that I had a great gran uncle who served in ww1 and a gran uncle who served in Dunkirk,not 100% sure if shes right so I'll have to trace back a little in the family history here,all belonging to me have been either in the army or navy so theres plenty to look up,once again thanks.:)

Rashers

arnhem44 wrote: »

Hello Mairt,thank you kindly for that,I'm still trying to gather more info on his time in the army,

Arnhem, even if you could find out what barracks he was attached to or served in it might help to identify the unit he served with. Along with that a name and approximate dates would set you well on your way.